It is acknowledged in the sport of golf that players' overcrowding of courses has become a problem to both course operators and players alike. For instance, in order to handle the increased number of players, course operators have increased the number of tee times over the day, thus shortening the duration between tee times and causing groups to tee off one after the other. Because of this increased traffic on the course, golfers are often forced to abandon a played golf ball that is not clearly visible to players, such as in the rough; this is so because although the ball is fairly within bounds, it would take an inordinate amount of time in trying to locate it. As a result, golfers often suffer not only the expense of having to replace the golf ball but also the frustration of having to add strokes to their score for a lost ball.
Even should other golfers spot where a ball landed and somehow indicate its position, the problem still exists. For example, if told roughly where his ball has landed, by the time the golfer approaches his ball, he may have lost all bearings and/or landmarks which the other golfers referred to from the tee or wherever the ball was launched. In other instances, a golfer or caddy finding a ball may have attempted to indicate the position of the ball by leaving an article of clothing or piece of equipment near the ball when passing by it. Unfortunately, however, there are numerous flaws with such actions. For instance, should the ground be wet or dirty, the article or equipment may become wet or dirty also, sometimes even damaging the equipment irreparably. Additionally, this makeshift marker may be inadvertently left behind, forcing the owner to return to look for it when, and if, he realizes it has been forgotten; if never found, the replacement cost can be quite expensive, if for example a club were left as the marker. It is easily appreciated, therefore, that all of these occurrences cause undue expense and aggravation to the golf course users and operators, who either cannot readily locate a played ball, have left some impromptu marker behind to indicate where a played ball has landed, or attempt to schedule tee times and speed of play in order to accommodate players who later on will slow play down through being unable to locate played balls easily.
A search of the prior art reveals efforts to ameliorate this problem. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,133 to Bellagamba, there is described a golf ball marker for use on a putting green manufactured from a flat piece of material having top and bottom sides and an edge therearound. The edge has a concave arcuate portion shaped to fit around a portion of a golf ball and also has a point generally centered on and opposite the concave arcuate edge portion and has surface markings formed on the top of the flat piece of material, generally metal, including an arcuate line spaced from and parallel to the concave arcuate edge portion and has an arrow between the center of the concave arcuate edge portion and the center of the pointer. An aperture through the ball marker is positioned in or adjacent the point formed in the edge thereof. Additionally, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,383,095 to Azotea, there is described a golf ball indicator in the nature of a stake, generally manufactured of metal, which is pressed into the ground to mark a golf ball that would otherwise be hidden by the tall grass of a golf course “rough,” having a visible flag and of a length to extend above the height of the grass when inserted by pressing down on a surrounding flange positioned adjacent a bottom spike of the stake or in serving as a depth stop for the placement.
Numerous failings exist with these efforts, however. First, while each of these inventions do indicate where a played ball has landed on the course, by being made of metal and therefore unable to be folded or easily and lightly toted, these inventions can be unwieldy to carry; golfers and caddies using a full set of clubs would be loath to expend more energy on carrying such products, useful as they would be. This is even more the case where one must drive a stake in the ground, which not only is expected to be heavier than other measures but would itself be unduly time-consuming, and thereby defeating the goal of simple, efficient ball indication. In a similar vein, by being made through precision crafting, the inventions of the prior art are of not insignificant expense. Golf players, especially amateur players, would not expect to bear a greater additional cost to their equipment, and golf course operators would be unlikely to add overhead to their operations through investing in such products. Finally, by themselves being more precision-crafted than a mere article of clothing, these inventions are themselves too desirable to lose through forgetfulness; this defeats the desired purpose of having an inexpensive, simple device to indicate the position of one's golf ball on the field of play.